FAS1101 - Writing Academically Review

FAS1101

Taken in: AY20/21 Semester 2

Tutor: Doreen Tan

Grading:

• 15% - Participation
• 15% - Research Proposal
• 25% - Overview Essay
• 45% - Final Essay

ZH: Everyone in FASS has to take this module, so this isn't much of a module review, but just something that can prepare you for the module and what to expect.

Basically, this module has you writing one essay (Max 1800 words) over the semester, along the way teaching you how to properly write an academic essay, especially how to do citations. You have to pick an essay topic based on several content packages, and typically they have some essay questions for you to answer. The content packages have topics from various FASS departments: ELL, Sociology, History, SEA Studies, CNM, CELC. I'm unsure if these packages will change but they remain largely the same over the years. I did the one under CELC on Same Sex marriages (Basically debate about 377A). After you pick a content package in the first few weeks, you will begin to write your submissions.

The first submission is the research proposal (Max 300 words). Basically write a thesis and about 3 main arguments. It is recommended that you include one counterargument and rebuttal within the 3. It's not an essay, just an outline of what you might want to talk about in your essay. Next is the overview essay (Max 800 words) which is basically a literature review on your topic and arguments. For example, if you're arguing for x, you will need to write about what has been said and done about x by others within the context of your topic. Note that the overview essay is added on to the research proposal, meaning your overview essay includes the RP you submitted initially. This also gives you a chance to revise the RP after getting your tutor's remarks from the first submission. This also means the the 800 word limit for the OE includes the RP, so the actual literature review portion will be about 500 words, given that the RP is up to 300 words.

After these two submissions (Which will be done before recess week), there will be no more submissions until the end of the semester, where you will submit your final essay which constitutes a whopping 45%. Unlike the first two submissions, you won't be adding on to the RP or OE, instead actually forming your thesis and arguments into an actual essay.

Here's the part you probably want to hear about. Typically if you score within the 70-75 range, that's considered pretty good already, maybe on the way to an A-. 80+ is an A for the essay, which possibly also translates to an A or even A+ for the module if you get it consistently. Most people tend to score around the 65-75 range so don't beat yourself up too badly. I don't believe this module is heavily bell curved, based on what my tutor said, so just try your best. The content packages are really heavy and I didn't manage to read all the readings on my topic, but try to put in consistent thought and effort into the essay and you should be able to do well.

What my tutor mentioned about the content packages: The CNM Content package is a new addition (I was tempted to take it) but it's not recommended because it's hard to write an in-depth essay on the topic. According to her, the law and homosexuality topic is difficult (Agreed). Also note your mileage may vary based on your tutors, but generally my tutor, Doreen, was very nice and helpful.

Again, feel free and message if you'd like to know more. I'll be glad to send you my essay for reference if you're working on the 377A topic (For my final essay I got about 80+).

M: I enjoyed this mod quite a lot tbh, but I feel that your mileage varies greatly based on whichever tutor's class you join. This is especially since you will be seeing the same tutor every week. There are no lectures and he or she will be the one marking your work throughout the semester, so you will want to get in their good books LOL. I've had friends absolutely hating this module because of their tutor, so my suggestion is... Try to get into Doreen's tutorial, she's really friendly and clear in her explanations! 

Considering the fact that you're technically working on the same essay throughout the semester, I'd say workload is manageable as long as you make sure to put aside time to edit it before the deadline. Try not to leave things too last minute so that if you have any queries you can ask your tutor about it, and definitely make use of the consults you get! For me, I finished my entire draft of my final essay before heading into the consult in Week 13 and she basically told me that I should reorganise my entire essay so... I'm really glad I got that pointed out if not I probably wouldn't have attained the final grade I did. If you have any questions please ask your tutor about it, they're there to help and something I'd recommend is to ask your friends to read through your essays! I did the Lit package on Flannery O'Connor so when I let my friends read my essays they definitely had zero context about what I was writing about, which was a really good way of helping me know whether my writing was understandable enough or not.

If you want to know the threshold for getting A, I got 72.8 for my RP, 75.4 for OE and 78 for my final essay. ZH and I got around the same marks for the RP and OE so I'd say that if you get 80+ for your final essay you'll probably get an A+!

Expected/Actual Grade: 

• ZH: A/A+
• M: A/A